Putting Weavile in a pre-Gen 4 game without adding the physical/special split should be illegal.

I remember playing through this in High school. I had an abysmal time with the balancing yet I pushed myself to finish it because the edgy story intrigued me. The elite 4 balancing was atrocious. lv. 100 Regigigas spamming Hyper beam was the worst.

Just wanna say I'm shocked people go back to see this old video and like it especially since it has such terrible audio mixing LMAO. I wish I could rerelease this video with better sound quality. Whenever a new video is out on my channel, this one also gets weirdly boosted. One day I'll cover more rom hacks and I promise my quality would be a lot higher

The fact, that you have to keep a small team to not be forced to grind a lot kinda reminds of, when you were using only the starter pokemon and nothing else. So that you end up with like a lvl 80 starter and five random HM Mons, that are like lvl 4 or something along the line.

I remember recently I wanted the game to be playable and enjoyable so I painstakingly replaced every sprite with the better ones we have now, and made the physical special split move by move while also fixing the horrible "legendaries" they made up

From the looks of it a lot of the gameplay problems with this just boils down to date, I’d imagine all those years ago rom hacking tools were so bare minimum, in fact even today rom hacking tools are so underdeveloped most “rom hacks” are actually made via decompilations, which to give a brief explanation, is simply editing the uncompiled source code of whatever game you have as a base then releasing a patch that exchanges the altered code to a rom.

I will never forget the thread of DoesntKnowHowToPlay (guy behind the Physical/Special Split for the Gen 3 games) critiquing this game and the backlash it got.

I've seen a few screenshot LPs of this. That Regigigas? It doesn't have Slow Start, no... It has *HUGE POWER.* The LPs in question got past Dark Lugia by way of Calm Mind Kyogre, *copious* Destiny Bond cheese, or straight-up making their own hackmons.

A big issue I have with older Pokemon fangames(I have _no_ idea if the ones coming out now are the same since I haven’t played any in a minute) is the stupidly steep difficulty curve present in a majority of them. Also the occasional brainrotting puzzles, but that’s another can of worms. I guess it comes from the community not being given a hard mode - and even being given a default: on, full party Exp Share that the npcs weren’t level scaled around instead - so the community has a massive pushback to the other end of the scale. But having six turns of your party getting one-shot by Level 97 McGee ends up being just as bad as pressing Flamethrower six times against random Level 20 fodder. Or maybe it’s even worse, since at least in the latter scenario you only experience it once and immediately continue with the story afterwards. Dark Rising is a victim of that trend, and even brings in hax moves and stats that the player will never have access to(or gets access to way later on in the post-game) to skew it even further against them. But I’ve seen a whole creative slew of methods to artificially pump up the enemy trainers: giving one-sided field effects, cancelling out the type weaknesses of their mons, skipping the middle man and giving their mons straight up custom types with no weaknesses, giving them access to shadow moves, having back to back 6 mon battles, having a double battle with 12 mons, you name it. And all the while, I’m thinking, “remember when the enemy just having some good held items, a decently leveled team, and mons of varying types was enough?”

Never thought I'd see an in depth review of Dark Rising. I admit this was one of my first romhack alongside Pokemon Prism, and it was playing the two back to back that made me see the difference in quality of romhack content could have in this community (to be fair, Dark Rising is older and one of the first of its type, while Prism took longer to develop). This really covered all my issues with the title back then, and in a really fun fashion as well.

My favorite thing about pokemon rom hacks is that youre either about to play the best game ever.... Or the worst thing youve ever played lmao.

By the way, aside from what I mentioned, I wanted to add something, the E4's legendaries are buffed. I opened the game using a hex editor, and it was ABSURD: Do you know why that Regigigas was so strong? It had 180 attack (The same as MEGA-RAYQUAZA), and not only that, but also FUCKING HUGE POWER But attack wasn't the only thing that was buffed, oh no. Regigigas has a total of 860 BST, that's higher than literally every playable, non-boss Pokémon, but the thing doesn't end there: Cresselia has 840 (Which is still higher than anything that isn't the 1v4 designed Eternamax Eternatus), Dialga and Palkia have 890, Mewtwo has 910, and LUGIA. HAS. 1010. This game expects you to defeat a team composed of six Pokémon above the BST of literally anything the game has ever created, with one of them, Lugia, not only surprassing the thousand, but also being a GHOST/DARK type, which I think I have to remind you, HAD NO WEAKNESSES. I wish I was making this up, this game is straight up cheating to win

"Difficulty" ROM Hacks are so interesting. 99% of the time they're the least balanced thing ever. They'll have the first gym battle be a fully EV/IV trained team of 6 with TMs, egg moves, and move tutor moves while the first 2 route you could actually play had like level 5-7 shitmons. I remember playing Radical Red a few years ago and getting bodied all the time because of dumb stuff like that. I'm not someone who gets into high levels of strategy playing a Pokemon game so it gets super frustrating getting completely walled in the first gym. I think in Pokemon Snakewood (absolutely horrible game) the 2nd gym has a dark/ghost mon with Wonder Guard and you HAVE to poison it.

I remember the sequel to this and the first Pokemon you fight after getting your Dragon starter back is a BRONZOR. Y'know? The Pokemon that resists all the starters moves????

The champion is absolutely cheap, to beat him i had to be cheap as well, so i brought a Shedinja, 2 of his Pokemon could do nothing to Shedinja

That Garchomp commenter at the end put the forums through the wringer 😂

I played the Dark Rising: Worlds Collide romhack because of the Digimon. I didn't quite know the infamy the whole Dark Rising series had. And boy, the improvement didn't happen there. It's been awhile so I can't remember the finer details, but I definitely remember the end-game being absolute un-balanced trash. I have to use two Intimidate mons and switch them out while also item-abusing to keep things alive to debuff like, multiple opponents. WHILE also having a Moody mon (Warumanzaemon if you're curious) to boost to max in every single stat, evasion included, to even stand a chance against the final stuff. Also some of the Digimon sprites are super bad, like 'pixelate a detailed picture and slap it in the rom' bad. It had novelty but was just badly designed overall.

This was a great video. You should cover Snakewood next! 😂

WindScar: "It's simple. We uhhh kill the Garchomp."

You are easily one of my favorite creators to watch, can't wait for more content!

Thank you for the video ! I think the main think with gaming is for everyone to experience fun, no matter what form it can take, but I was always baffled at how many people seemed to like Dark Rising. Even if you are someone uninterested in a pokehack's plot, the "story" of Dark Rising is so invasive and chatty at times (while nothing much happening in general) that you WILL have to suffer through it. I enjoy cheesy intrigue from time to time but this "chosen" clichés became tiring, as well as battling so many people wanting to test you for no good reason. As for the difficulty, even Snakewood doesn't go that far. I'm sure some people like to grind but I fail to see the point of implementing such ridiculously high-level Pokémons, especially with broken ones like level 100 Regigigas. Time is valuable and I had no shame using rare candys to spare me hours of dull grinding. Even like that many battles were barely tolerable. I was curious still and tried Dark Rising II... But I wouldn't recommend it either. Difficulty is still of the chart and the plot is even more bonkers.

This whole game seemed like something else. And the stuff at the end about Garchomp, I was like... you kill it with Ice Beam, Blizzard, maybe Aurora Beam or possibly Ice Ball if you're that bad off. Not Powder Snow, that seemed too low on the Ice move totem pole. Damn! 😂 Take a sub!

That was quite funny and interesting never usually see criticism or in depth review of the mechanics when youtubers play fan games its usually just going through the story... informative too for what NOT to do while making a fan game..

I love how yt definitely shows it's labeled and 100% Pokemon sword/shield lol, and I do love the genuine care of the creation of the mod creating a beautiful broken mess 5/10

This video was great and had super endearing commentary. I enjoyed the various gags and reaction clips, but most of all I liked how you pointed out flaws without ever going over the line into ranting or personal attacks or anything and you tried to point out good stuff when you saw fit. I’d love to see more videos in this style about other classic Pokemon ROM hacks, or even of some really ambitious and genuinely well-executed hacks (I’ve been playing Volt White by Drayano lately and it’s been great but there are some bruh moments in there for sure). In general I think you have a good thing going here and I watched the whole video so that’s gotta be a good sign! Also I loved the final part dunking on that Redditor ass contrarian talking about Garchomp lol

Wait, hold on. Isn't the spot with the back-to-back grunts where the leader gives you an ultra ball the same layout as nugget bridge in FrLg, right down to the water to the west and the grass on the other side?

watched your most recent Yugioh video not too long ago and just decided to give this a chance. just gotta say that your content is just as peak back then as it is now, and I hope that you'll be able to grace us with more bangers in the coming future. all the best now fam! 😃

It's hilarious how in the info section of the channel you promise a video every 2 week. But if the quality is this 1 video every 2 month is still ok. I'm officially a new follower, I'm trying to watch every video when I have the time. Continue like this!

Great video! I enjoyed watching this review :) if I can have just one suggestion, it's to lower the music volume since at times it's difficult to hear you talk. Other than that, great stuff!

LMAOOOO THE CUTS ARE HILARIOUS!

If you think this is the worst pokemon romhack, I'd love to see your reaction to snakewood. Imo it's 100 times worse than this romhack.

I've been binging your Yugioh series to help get through work but using the Roberto theme from Psychic Force 2012 made me instantly subscribe. Hope to hear more of your thoughts on gaming in the future.

Exp codes for Firered / Leafgreen, (whichever this one was built off) work for this game. That resolved the level problem. It's still bad, but the sequels are fine.

KZfaq recommend really bringing up those repressed memories of this game

You mentioned the sequels, and I’m interested in your thoughts about it if you ever got around to it. I think it’s slightly better but the same problems from DR1 and the other spinoffs(?) are still there that you mentioned. Pacing, story, the …self-inserts. I’m not sure if you would want a video on it, since it’s a year removed from this initial review, and I don’t know if,you could handle another torture fest.

i like your sense of humor man cool vid, got me oddly nostalgic for the early days of romhacking :)

The fact that the game had the audacity to give the final boss a mewtwo that can calm mind twice in the face of a swords dance X-scissor durant and outspeed swift swim ludicolo in the rain on top of a lugia with no weaknesses, a base stat total of 1010 (I'm not fucking kidding.) With a STAB move with 25 PP that hits everything in the game, guarantees poison, and has the same base power as fucking self destruct makes me wonder what the hell the dev was smoking. In all seriousness though, this is a really good video that I come back to fairly often and I look forward to more videos like this.

I don't know why it took me watching through all your videos to finally subscribe. On reflection, I meant to the moment I heard you use Squid Adler's theme in a video. Looking forward to watching all your stuff in the future.

I really hope that you can review more rom hacks in the future.

I remember that the champion battle was impossible for me, so what I did for Shadow Lugia was saving state before using an attack with a seccondary effect, like frozen state, so I load it up until it happens. Then, after beating it, Dark Rising 2 was completed, so I tried it, but Dark Rising 2 was too horrible, even for my 12 yo standards back then

The plot point about the npc being angry about devoting his whole life to Arceus because of his family and losing out on his life because of it is the same as Marik from the Yugioh anime. Like, same premise. It miiiight be a coincidence, to be fair, but it's worth pointing out

Oh I remember the pokémon rom hacking scene from back then! this one had such tough competition back then that I think people recommended it more often on the basis that it was frequently and actively worked on (and eventually finished). Many of the old rom hacking tools for FR/LG and R/S were made by latine teens, and unsurprisingly, it follows that there was an impressive selection of hacks coming out of the latine pokémon fandom. despite many of these being more competently made and aesthetically pleasing, people would be hesitant to pick up works in progress for fear that they may never be completed, especially since most of these were written in american spanish first before being vaguely translated to english. I'm really straining my brain here, those are the only things I can think of that Dark Rising has and most other hacks of its time don't have. pulling from the anime was pretty common back then, and it would actually be a bit surprising to see a romhack from back then that didn't incorporate at least one "forbidden" anime-only concept. I can't remember when it came out, but I know Pokémon Naranja version was a high-profile hack that specifically covered the anime's Orange Islands arc, and it looked real damn good for its time.

We need another Pokémon vídeo, this is pure gold!

16:22 NOT ASH-- I went through all stages of grief hearing that name Leave that boy alone in his baby show having g-rated fun 😭

No way all that happened before the first gym 💀💀💀

Bruh you only have like 8 vids. Hella good at that. You're going places.

That was a great intro with the Lugia Lmoao.

The first bad omen, that you have to grind a lot to progress in the game, is when you see the starters. Sure, they might be cool and very strong, but they also take a lot longer to level up, as your average starter. They all need 1.250.000 exp to reach level 100, which means, that they grow slower in general, but have better stats, to balance it out. I mean, Ghetsis in Black and White has an illegal Hydreigon at level 54, instead of 64. Or when did you ever use one of these in a casual story playthrough? 1,25 million exp is as much as most legendary pokemon need to reach level 100. The only pokemon I can think of, that needs more than 1,25 million for lvl 100 is seviper, for some reason. That mon needs like 1.640.000 exp. That Lucy character from the emerald battle frontier runs that mon. For me personally, it would take to long too level up. ^^

How could I contact you? I have a ROM I made I'd love to hear your input on.

ey man just wanna spread some love you one of the best youtubers i been watching lately you on the comeup trust

Those edits were 10/10. Well doooone

And there are three or four sequels to this game!

I liked your video a lot! Could you cover the rest of the series at some point?

Do you plan to come back with the pokemon romhacks reviewing? Btw loved your yugioh videos too

34:10 is the segment from any outer source? I couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably with sped up hokuto bgm and fighting sequence haha

I have now watched all of your videos in reverse order, please upload 10 more

I remember playing this game on a rom site cuz i was bored and getting bodied by a level 100 tornadus in the first patch of grass. Wild game.

liked the video! just wish that the background music wasn’t so loud bc at times i can barely hear what you’re saying

MythyMoo getting a little mention gave me serotonin

Love this video! Just found you today!

Man i just noticed someone used the volt kraken mmx soundfont by sfc. I think we are the only one we used them remixes, based af. And good video man, i cant believe you put up with all this shit.

What's the song playing at 36:11 ? Great video btw. I've played some unfair romhacks and fangames but this one's just frustrating lmao

I remember playing this game trying to do a littlelocke (without the nuzlocke, just using first stages), at the moment I saw the champion I straight up scrapped the idea.

Pretty late to the party but something I haven’t seen mentioned in the comments is just how absurd the legendaries the elite 4 (as well as ash’s ho-oh and “pikachu!!!”) are actually. Namely that they all have massively increased base stats, to the point where shadow lugia is over *1000 BST*. I think the Regigigas might be higher even if you take Huge Power into account, I don’t remember off the top of my head. For reference, Arceus has 720 total, and I think all the e4 legends in dark rising top it. Also the “pikachu!!!” is holding a light ball, but because it’s technically a different Pokémon it doesn’t actually do anything, which is kinda funny.

Will you ever cover the two other Dark Rising games? I really enjoyed this video

If by any chance you plan on making a similar video, I'd love to see you exploring Light Platinum in a similar way

What's the music playing during the bloopers? It made that fourm post much funnier lol

I remember people gassing this up, man how things look now, this game is a piece of shit

I wonder what WindScar is up to today 🤔

Mmmm Neo turf masters ost? You know I'm subscribing

I recall someone rage ranting about DR2's final boss, except they complained on some ROM hack aggregator site, thinking said site was the dev's. Fun times.

I think I have a different version of this rom hack because in that cave area in the beginning of the game, there weren’t any encounters for me. Also made it to tiki village and the Pokemon outside the town are all grass starters 🤔

Do you have a VOD channel ? Very good video btw

great video, i kinda forgot about this game but it really is something. it's definitely a product of its time though i recall this game getting a lot of shit even back then for all its flaws lol. something i was hoping you'd bring up is that dratini is like, a really atrocious starter in this game. i think when you get it the only moves it knows are wrap and thunder wave, which should be self explanatory for how awful that is. also, i get skipping ahead to save time but i was also hoping you'd bring up the fight against the really awful ms paint yugi sprite lol

Yeah you can tell this was their first project. It's pretty awesome..if only the levels wasn't all over the place.

34:08 man i need the source of this. i laughed my ass off watching this part. keep up the good work mate

I cant stop thinking about the 100% jolly volcarona

Dark raising had great story at least, unlike Snakewood which was bad for the sake of being bad. Still kinda unbalanced though 😂

Can you list the songs you used?

This game was such a chore to play. Ridiculous level spikes, forty different rivals to keep track of that you have to fight constantly, and the general lack of polish makes this thing absolutely infuriating. I was into the story at first, but everything else was so bad soured it for me. I beat that Lugia with leech seed + spamming revives. At the end of it all, he was stuck with struggle. It was cathartic to kill that thing, but definitely not in the way the rom hacker intended.

Holy fuck, duelist of the roses sound track at the start gave me a heart attack. Completely unrelated to the actual video, the music just caught me so off guard LMAO

the tutorial was in the original frlg too btw it was just oak who explains how battles worked

How naive I was hacking this rom on to my 3ds and thinking it was going to be a fun experience

Song beginning at 18:22?

I wouldn't say Pokemon rom hacking as in its infancy in 2011/2012, I remember Pokemon Shiny Gold or something like that being a gen 2 remake on the GBA, and I played a beta of that in like 2008. I'd say that's closer to the infancy, because I remember a lot of hype about that one and it was definitely one of the first major project attempting a full rom hack with new maps and everything.

I know you suffered a great deal... but I need to know every single track you used for this video, it's so good! Feel free to ignore.

Bro im more invested in the Garchomp dude at this point lmao

What song is playing around the 26:00 / 27:00 mark? Good video btw

Do you have a list of the songs used in this video? (in order)

I remember almost finishing the game, only to be blocked by a super tanky Cresselia from one of the Elite four.

I remember my best friend tried to play this back in middle school, he said "absolutely not" after like 2 hours

yo what's the song that starts playing around 2:05-2:10?

Was watching this but ain’t you the guy who locked in at mihawk’s black paint on luffys bat

Ok your music taste slaps tho

YOU CAN'T PLAY THE WHOLE GAME WITH ONE POKÉMON AND COMPLAIN THAT IT'S HARD! The video was really entertaining, though. Your voice is super relaxing! And I love your sense of humour. Think I might subscribe

5:38 where you get this clip from?

I can see hard mode rom hack works if they actually give you tools comparable to boss trainers. Like being able to EV training and breed good IVs pokemon easily, actually get good rooster of Pokemon and decent level curve (or do the good old Healing wish Chansey/Blissey/Audino repeatable battle thing) Kinda sad that most hard rom hack either fck up level curve, give you only shitmons and give the boss OU/Uber level mons or full EV/IV trained first gym (or both) while you have to kill Pidgey for speed EVs, without Power items.

Fyi 1st time doing a YT (i think kinda lol) but we in there

I remember sweeping the champion team with a calm mind reuniclus, since their entire team is special. I was doing a nuzlocke of this shit. But I don’t really remember the rest of my team. How did I beat the shadow Luiga??

I wanted to try it but this game is painful ESPECIALLY the Kaizo version. I do like this. You should try to check out Unbound. That's a real treat you would appreciate.